PETERBOROUGH - Growing pains for the K-W Braves. These things are to
be expected for a team so young. Peterborough have many youths as
well, however their team isn't nearly as inexperienced. That, in the
end, was one of the deciding factors as the Lakers trounced the Braves
13-4 Tuesday night.
If you want to begin with bad omens, the K-W bus rolled into the
Memorial Centre less than 30 minutes to game time. So the Brown Shirts
were scrambling right from the start. There would be no 9-0 blitz,
like the one they enjoyed in their home opener. Nevertheless, das
Wunderkind put their best foot forward when play commenced.
Peterborough won the opening period 5-3. They did that inspite of
being shorthanded practically the last 10 minutes of the session. The
Green Machine is as exciting to watch down a man as they were a year
ago. It's like having a fifth runner on the floor just gets in their
way and cramps their style. With four runners they all spread their
wings and soar. An inefficient K-W powerplay gave them many
opportunities to fly down the floor. On one man disadvantage Jamie
Plunkett and Ryan Sharp stole the show. They did everything right
except score. Mike Poulin turned away five point blank chances in a
row, before Sharp finally beat him on the sixth shot. That put the
home team ahead 5-2. Sharp finished the period as the only player with
multiple points(1 goal and 1 assist).
The Braves hung tough through most of the second. Ryan Benesch is a
natural. His stick skills are clear to see and he is going to be a
player to really watch over time. Joel Wilson shall be another keeper.
He scored twice on two neat shots. Poulin looked best of all. The
Lakers should have had over 20 goals on the night. Make no mistake, we
are not talking about the '95 Warriors here - there's no where near
that much talent on K-W. Still, das Wunderkind have added a new
attitude to the Braves. This is a team improving as we speak.
Yet it all fell apart late in the second period. The killer goal came
right after a John Martin timeout. Brad Self scored with .02 seconds
on the clock to make it 8-4. The neatest play of the period came,
naturally, shorthanded. Greg McIntyre grabbed a loose ball by the
boards and somehow managed to whip a wronghanded, backhanded pass down
the floor and straight into Ryan Sharp's stick. Yet Sharp was denied
by Poulin.
The third was totally dominated by the Lakers. Brian Croswell and Mike
Hobbins took over. Unlike Sharp and Plunkett, they finish when they
get in close. Brad Self was always prominent and finished the night
high man with 3 goals and 3 assists. Chad Evans was also interesting
to watch. He's a bit like a pocket Marty O'Brien and scored once
inside. Dan Carey and Josh Wasson were two more players who looked
terrific. Plus rookie Cory Vitarelli picked up a quiet 3 assists.
Scott Evans was absent, still away in school.
For the Braves, the final 30 minutes were tough. It was simply a case
of young players used to shooting at Midget goaltending suddenly being
forced to face, arguably, the best goaltender in Junior lacrosse in
Cole Murray. There was one brilliant save from King Cole early. After
that he was unspectacularly solid. Even with K-W seemingly having a
power play for three periods they never really tested him. Yes their
specialty team was bad and their stick skills are still at the
developemental stage, however the Brown Shirts are on the rise. Think
of this game as the Beer Hall Putsch and keep your eyes on das
Wunderkind.
SOAP SUD(for maninthetub) Our OLA statistician was asked to pick the
winning 50/50 ticket and missed getting the Wamper's ticket by one
number.
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